Rochester refugees were waiting to be reunited with family -- then Trump delayed it with his order
Feb. 18—ROCHESTER — The first inkling that life for Feroza Yari and her family were about to be thrown into upheaval was when her American supervisor showed up at work in the U.S. embassy where Yari worked wearing a flak jacket and helmet.
It was August 2021. The supervisor said the Taliban had taken over the provinces and were heading toward the capital of Kabul. Yari had worked for the U.S. government in Kabul since 2015. She and other Afghan employees were told to turn over their laptops and other U.S. government assets and leave as soon as possible.
The U.S. backed government in Kabul collapsed. The U.S. military pulled out.
It marked the beginning of a whirlwind flight for Yari and her husband, Abbas Yari, and their baby daughter from their homeland in Afghanistan to their new home in Rochester.
When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they began a house-by-house search for Afghans who had worked with the U.S. government, to kidnap and kill them, Yari said.
Though she was safely ensconced in Rochester for the last four years, Yari's parents and siblings who were left behind were never far from Yari's thoughts. A measure of relief seemed at hand when her mom and dad and a sibling, having fled to Qatar, were about to be flown to the U.S. to be reunited with Yari. Then the presidential election intervened.
President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, suspended the refugee resettlement program, leaving Yari's parents and her sister in limbo in a refugee camp in Qatar.
Adding to Yari's distress and anxiety is that her 63-year-old mom needs medical care. She is in a hospital in Qatar receiving medical care for spinal cord problems. It was Yari's hope that doctors at Mayo Clinic — "the best hospital in the world" — would be able to treat her.
"When she moved to Qatar, she was OK," Yari said. "She's a perfect, healthy lady, and suddenly, about a month there, her health is not good."
They were part of a group 14 refugees who were on the cusp being resettled in southern Minnesota and reunited with family members before Trump's executive order threw a wrench in those plans, said Adam Jarvis, director of Refugee Settlement Services for Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota, an organization that was assisting with the resettlement.
The order also disrupted the plans of another group of 50 or so refugees who were to be resettled in the area later in the year.
A coalition of refugees and agencies are challenging Trump's order that has indefinitely paused the resettlement program and slashed federal funding to refugee processing and services with a lawsuit in federal court in Seattle. That suit was filed on Monday.
The three agencies behind the lawsuit argue that the suspension violates Congress' authority to make immigration laws.
Yari said she wasn't unaware of Trump's restrictionist immigration policies. She witnessed his presidency in its first term. So she knew if he won re-election, he was bound to act on his immigration campaign promises, but she thought he would be more focused on undocumented immigrants — and not those who were seeking to enter the country legally and following the rules.
In fact, Trump suspended the refugee program four years ago but reactivated after a review of several months. It's why Yari remains hopeful that she will soon be reunited with her mom and dad.
"I'm hopeful," Yari said. "I hope they will soon (end) the suspension."
Yari is studying to be a dental hygienist at Rochester Community and Technical College. Her husband, Abbas, takes classes at the Hawthorne Center and also works. The couple are also raising a son, who was born in the U.S.
Yari has other siblings living in Afghanistan that she hopes can be resettled in the U.S. Yari and her family belong to the Hazara, an ethnic minority often targeted for reprisals and discrimination by the Taliban.
"Since I belong to the Hazara community, I'm worried about my family," Yari said.
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